Our elections are still a wreck

Friday

Nov 30, 2018 at 12:01 AM

After more than two centuries of democracy, America is still having difficulty counting votes — in certain places, anyway. Many precincts managed the Nov. 6 election smoothly. Orange County, California, for instance, home to a handful of tightly contested congressional races, did the job largely without drama. But others experienced inexcusably long lines and sketchy standards of administration.

Then there’s Florida. Despite the trauma it inflicted on the nation in 2000, this swing state, accustomed to narrow margins of victory, was again unprepared. Officials from Governor Rick Scott, who was elected to the U.S. Senate, down to Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes proved themselves unready and incompetent.

The U.S. electorate seems likely to be closely divided for the foreseeable future. Elections will be hard-fought, and passions intense. Leaving these voting-system defects unrepaired is a grave mistake. But exploiting them for partisan advantage, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the electoral process, is worse. Elections need to be better run — and when problems arise, voters need to hold politicians to a higher standard of conduct.

Better election administration shouldn’t be difficult. The design of the ballot in Broward ignored guidelines recommended by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. A needlessly confusing layout helps explain why thousands of voters expressed no preference on the Senate race even as they voted in other contests. Multiple Florida counties missed a recount deadline, including nearby Palm Beach, where voting machines overheated. Elsewhere, voters complained of having to fight to keep their votes from being discarded or of being denied permission to vote.

For starters, partisans shouldn’t oversee elections. Republican secretaries of state in Georgia and Kansas ran for governor this year. Neither thought it necessary to recuse himself from supervising his own race. Credible charges of partisan vote suppression emerged in both states.

Nonpartisan state-redistricting commissions are starting to catch on, which is good. Michigan, for example, adopted one in a referendum this month. Nonpartisan election administrators are needed as well. That will require bipartisan efforts in the states.

Technology upgrades are also overdue. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in the 2018 election, 41 states relied on election systems that are at least a decade old; 13 are using voting machines that don’t produce a paper backup. In the event of machine failure, cyberattack or other problems, there may be no way to verify the vote count.

Upgrades shouldn’t undermine privacy, however. In New York, voters used to vote behind a curtain, turning a lever on an old industrial-age machine. The votes were cast in total privacy — with no chance for stray marks on a ballot. After a system upgrade, voters now fill out paper ballots in privacy-free cubicles, where neighbors can readily gaze over short barriers to see how others are voting. Poll workers sometimes assist voters inserting ballots into scanners, further eroding privacy.

Addressing shortcomings requires a bipartisan effort in Congress. Legislation introduced in the Senate by Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma would require state election systems to provide backup paper ballots and post-election audits. It got nowhere thanks to squabbles about funding and other conflicts.

But persistent mismanagement and inadequate voting systems aren’t the only threats to elections. Another is the current outbreak of partisan demagoguery. Shouting “vote fraud” in a democracy is akin to shouting “fire” in a crowded theater: Given the damage it can do, you’d better mean it.

While the count was still underway in Florida, President Trump tweeted that an “honest vote count” in the state was “no longer possible — ballots massively infected.” This was false. Governor Scott, without evidence, accused Democrats of engaging in “rampant fraud” in Broward and Palm Beach (which took an extra helping of gall, coming from a man who had spent some eight years failing to secure the state’s election systems).

In Arizona, Trump’s efforts to stir discord were received differently. Republican Governor Doug Ducey said fair elections require patience so that every vote can be counted. Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake rebutted Trump’s claim of “corruption,” and a former aide to the late John McCain chastised his party for spreading falsehoods about the vote.

Vote fraud is illegal. A court of law is the proper venue to consider such allegations. The charge should never be made lightly. Trump, Scott and anyone else who levels it should be expected to present evidence. If they cannot, they should be judged accordingly — not as politicians speaking loosely for rhetorical effect, but as threats to the country’s democratic system of government.

— Bloomberg News

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